Need help picking/placement of speakers

davehall83

I am looking for some suggestions, I want to invest some money in speakers for a home theater system. The room I am putting the sound system in is 18'15in by 15' 11in and has a 22ft tall ceiling and is open floor plan to the entire house. I will of course center the couch in this octogon shaped room. I have a bit of a dilema since the room is octogon. I have been looking for speakers for quite some time and this is what I came up with. Any suggestions on these speakers would be greatly appreciated as I don't want to waste my money but want something good for gaming/watching 3d movies and getting good quality dolby 7.1 sound.

Speakers:

Front Left/Right: Polk Audio RTi A9 Pair
Center: Polk Audio CSI A6
Surround side right/left side of room: Polk Audio FXi A6 Pair
Surround Rear right/left: Polk Audio FXi A6 Pair
Sub: Polk Audio DSW PRO 550Wi
Amp: Onkyo TX-NR809

Does anyone have any comment's on these speakers I selected as far as my room size/shape? I figured the FXi A6 would work well in the octogon room with the bipole/dipole switch and the shape of the walls having the sound reflect around the room, any idea's on this and placement?

For the center channel i was going to go the next step up to the LSI series center like the lsi 704 instead of the CSI A6 but crutchfield said because I am using the RTI series speakers, the sound may not be acoustically correct. Is this true? My goal is to have clairty out of the center channel/voices and not to have that center audio washed out. If I dont need to spend the extra money on the lsi 704 thats great but if it's going to make a huge difference then I will but I want to make sure I don't drown out the front's/surrounds.

For the sub is that too big? I don't need to blow out the windows just want the good quality sound, thats what I am trying to obtain.

Last but not least for the amplifier, what do you think based on the speakers? Is onkyo the best to go in the price range our should i try a different amp? Any suggestions on a 7.1 amp/home theater receiver would be great. Is the amp i choose enough power to drive these speakers and to obtain good quality?

Again, help is greatly appreciated as this is a huge investment that i want to last and be happy with and making sure everything matches right. I have attached a diagram of my room which is exact its the one labeled Family room. Tv is on the wall where library wall is which is the direction i will be facing. Placement of speakers/selections etc is greatly appreciated as mentioned aboveimg030.pdf

pyrocyborg

Crutchfield are correct bout the LSiM center paired with RTi towers: It wouldn't sound really uniform. Your front end should be of the same series for best results. Sure you can adjust the center channel with EQ, but you end up manipulating how the speaker reproduce the sound.

Also, we must make a certain distinction to start about amp and receiver. A receiver is a tuner/pre-amp/amp combo with a lot of bell and whistle to make great HT duty by it's own. However, as it has to be a jack-of-all-trade, it cannot pack a beefy amp and a lot of heat dissiper. An external amp is an amp only, without tuner or volume control: It is dependant of a pre-amp, or a receiver who works as a pre-amp: it can offer much much more power than a traditionnal receiver for the same price, but it cannot work by itself (i.e. it need a pre-amp/processor or receiver).

As for your room size, ceiling and choice of front speakers (RTiA9), I don't think a receiver will do the job. This Onkyo is great, but keep in mind that it ouput 135w when 2 channels are driven. With all channel working, it can drop to 90 or 100, which is good, but far from what the RTiA9 can really take (as much as 500w), and might not be enough for your room size: While a receiver can drive towers in a small to medium room, it might struggle driving a full 7 speakers in a large room, expecially if two of those speakers are one of the most power hungry budget towers out there (RTiA9).

As for the room shape and stuff, I can't really give a real advice, but I think it has been done numerous time. If there is some kind of reflection, you can add acoustic pannels.

Geoff4rfc

Good info from Pyro, good choice of speaker set up. Welcome to the club btw.

With an open floor plan and those speakers, room treatment will be important as will be head room/higher amplification.

You have a good matching series, keep it at that. Your speakers can fill a room nicely of if driven properly.

davehall83

Got it, Sorry if I am being a pain in the *** but I am just now getting into the world of audio and have only ever used the a/v receiver. So how about this, buy the onkyo 809 let it power the 4 dipole/bipole fxi a6 speakers and then get the Onkyo PA-MC5500 to power all the speakers and just use the pre-out's on the 809 to the pa-mc5500 do you think i will get what i need then wattage wise? Or is there something else you recommend? To keep the cost down, what if i dropped the model down some on my receiver like go with the onkyo 709 and just drop the money in the pa-mc5500 to amp the speakers? Or i can go with a onkyo txnr3009 which is 140 watts per channel but where would i be at then? Or i had an idea, buy the txnr809 and use the preout's rca type and go into a emotiva xpa3 receiver and use the oonkyo to power the rest is this a good idea but the only thing is i would be using unbalanced rca's and not sure if it matters? The other idea is use that setup but with XPA-5 but then it's a matter of what two speakers not to amp? Let me know your thoughts.

Geoff4rfc

Hay Dave, here's something to look at; the Onkyo amp is pretty expensive. For close to the same amount (and even less going with factory renewed), you can get two Emotiva amps. Two options, XPA-3 and XPA-2 and let the 809 power one set of surrounds or, XPA-5 and XPA-2 and be done.

Option one, use the 809, option 2, use the 709.

davehall83

Would doing the XPA-5 and using the 809 or 709 onkyo be sufficient and power the rear surrounds off the onkyo?

Geoff4rfc

Sure, either receiver would do fine for just a pair of surrounds. That would be option 3 :cool:

pyrocyborg

davehall83 wrote: »

Got it, Sorry if I am being a pain in the *** but I am just now getting into the world of audio and have only ever used the a/v receiver.

Don't get harsh on yourself, I think most of us were newbies at one time. I am far from having a phenomenal knowledge, but people on Club Polk (and other forums too) have been of great help. I knew only a few things about amps a few months ago, and I didn't even knew about DAC. Now, I built a good 2 ch. system that I am proud of, and while I went overboard with the budget, at least I'm happy... lol

This is a "quest", and thanks to Internet, there is a lot of ressources around. Sure, you must navigate through a sea of lies, myths and opinions, but that's why you must search again and try to get as much information as you can :cheesygrin: .

Do not take all my words for gold, as I might be wrong, but I gave my honest opinion. A receiver might be enough for your uses, but it might not too, expecially if you crank it up a little too much... Underpowering speakers can be deadly for both speakers and amp (if you drive them to the point of clipping)

Anyways, as geoff said, an Emotiva external amp could be great. While there are better amps out there (if you take everything in consideration, everything could be compared to something "better"), they have plenty of power for a great price. You could power the front 3 with your amp, and power the rest off your receiver.